Sinister Justice
by deepthroatx
Summary: Garen winds up in the Kumungu Jungle and gets an unsuspected meeting with Katarina. Things get confusing an intense fast as they find more about each other once they are forced into a situation that causes them to become inseparable.
1. Chapter 1

Small amounts of sunlight shines through tiny cracks of the vast complex branches of trees and leaves above a small Demacian convoy, marching towards their destination in the blistering heat that this mighty jungle had to offer. They are clad in thick heavy armour, coloured blue, white and gold. Their equipment not meant for conditions such as these. They huff and puff, their feet thud in unison, exhausted from days and days of walking with little respite. Exhausted they march on under the security of the shade.

"Captain, we should be arriving at the encampment shortly" calls out a young enthusiastic voice from the front of the convoy of tired sweat drenched men

"Great, I trust this trip hasn't taken a toll on you lot!" Replied the Captain "Lets keep it up, not long to go now, make me proud boys."

The Captain, belonging to House Crownguard was a very large man. He was built like he had worked his body to perfection every day of his life. His hands were enormous, almost as giant as the battle-worn sword which he carried. The mighty blade was heavy, and as large as a man standing, such a thing would need tremendous amounts of strength to wield; which was odd since the Captain held it so casually in his hand. Not only was this monstrous man's muscular physique something to awe about, his height too, was great. One could say he was as tall and thick as the grand tree trunks that surrounded his men right now in the jungle.

All this considered, there were certain things about him which you could consider a contradiction to his brutish appearance. His face, clean shaven, a short dark untidy brown school-boy haircut sat upon his head with no room for any style, it made him look a little innocent. His eyes were blue, the colour was almost the same as his royal blue uniform, pure as the intentions deep within his heart. Although he had some scars on his strong face, for which a warrior would not be complete without of course, he was actually somewhat handsome, especially with his strong jawline making him look fairly masculine. He held himself very proudly as he marched with his men, keeping an eye on every individual, making sure that all of his men did everything they were taught and ordered to do. This brave group of men were called the Dauntless Vanguard, men who were well known around Valoran and especially in the giant glorious city of Demacia. Their Captain, an exemplary example of a soldier, a true killing machine and a great leader.

The soldiers finally arrive at the wooden wall of which, from the outside, one could only assume belonged to a small fort, however the wall must have been there for some time since a lot of vegetation had started to grow up the surfaces of wood, mixing brown and green together almost naturally. The heavy looking gate was closed, behind the walls stuck out many different makeshift wooden guard towers, each with their own guard inside peering out like hawks on a perch. Demacian colours and banners seemed to be present only near the entrance of the encampment. The tower next to the gate had two men inside instead of the one, which made it unique to the others. One of the guards gave off the impression that he was green, the other looked like he had done this sort of thing quite a few times.

"Halt! State your name and business!" Shouted the more confident looking guard from his perch. Gazing down upon the clump of soldiers who were waiting outside the strangely made 'fortress' with anticipation. The carts that the convoy of soldiers had been carrying now rested down in-between the column of men on the uneven floor of earth and foliage of the jungle. It certainly was not an easy task to walk to somewhere where there were no clear paths or roads, even vines and other vegetation had blocked their way many times on this trip.

The giant Captain started to make his way toward the front, his big boots crushing anything underneath as he walked briskly. He took his place next to the young man who had called out to the Captain earlier that day.

"I am Captain Garen Crownguard, and these are my men, the Dauntless Vanguard, we are here to reinforce you on the request of Major Fergus who is stationed here." declared the Captain in a loud confident voice before gesturing with his thumb behind him at the faces of the tired men. The two guards looked at each other, something was muttered between the two, and then the inexperienced guard turned and seemed to have disappeared.

"Please be patient Captain." requested the hawk-like guard who had remained at his perch.

Garen looked at the young man next to him, and spoke a little quieter.

"How are you holding up Charlie? I know this is your first big adventure away from the capital?" asked the Captain in a voice of a little concern.

"I am fine Cap. Nothing guna' to keep me down now!" he lied.

"Good, I myself cannot wait to get in there, find where I will be staying and put my feet up"

"Sounds nice Cap"

The sound of something mechanical could be heard from inside the shoddy wooden walls, the gates started to lift itself. The faces of some of the exhausted men start to change, as smiles appeared on their faces.

The Captain, now ahead of all of his men was the first to pass through the gate. Inside were white tents, crowded everywhere the eye could see, the men inside who were watching as new company arrived wore a different uniform to the usual Demacian blue, white and gold. In-fact – their clothes were olive, most likely to match the environment to which they belonged as camouflage. It was also much less clumsier looking since there was little armour covering their bodies to ventilate the humid heat. It was not much of a fort to be honest, it was odd looking since the wooden walls must have been erected around them as protection. _Why would they need such a precaution? _Garen thought. The guard towers that you could see from the outside were now much clearer to see, there was also another entrance to the other side of the encampment which had a gate just like the one the Dauntless Vanguard had finished coming through. It was all a little too much protection, just for a small encampment, was the commander here a little overcautious? Perhaps, a little paranoid.

A portly man with a smile upon his face approached the Captain, he held his hands behind his back and took a quick look at all the new arrivals and then back at the Garen. The man was old, his hair starting to gray along with his neatly kept beard. The contrast between the two men was almost amusing. The old man had a friendly lovable look on his face and looked like he was in his very late forties. Garen had been standing to attention the minute he had saw the old man walking over to him, and now that he was next to him, he dared not to move giving him the uttermost respect he deserved.

"My-my, Garen Crownguard, it has been some time hasn't it?" the round man asked the Garen in a friendly tone.

"Major Fergus, it has been far too long. You've kept yourself busy with work from what I heard." laughed Garen.

The major raised his eyebrow for a second and put on a serious face.

"Oh? And from whom have you heard such things, eh boy!" Fergus joked, and then chuckled a little. "Don't suppose my wife sent you out here to scold me for being away for so long"

Garen knew that the time for jokes and laughter could come later. Although he knew the Major very well he could not go off course from his purpose. He took a breath and started to speak.

"I have a letter for you from the Crown Prince that you should read immediately. I would also like to ask you a few questions. Do you have anywhere we can speak a little more privately," asserted Garen in a less casual way he was talking in before.

"Of course, come with me to my tent. Also, since we are being so formal. Your men should find the Quartermaster, he will show them where they will be staying and where to deliver the supplies. I want to see them out of that uniform as soon as they settle in too!"

"You heard the Major, get to it!" Garen ordered.

The men who were standing around waiting had now started to move, Garen still with his travel pack and sword looked at the Major again, who was gesturing his hand before him, indicating that Garen should follow. Fergus then briskly began to walk away. _Quite lively at his age _Garen thought as he followed the chunky Major through a complicated path of tents. It was weird to think a man like that would be looking after a recon unit. He would only be giving orders however, its not like he would be participating on espionage missions, would it even be possible for Fergus to be sneaky?

Garen did not really understand the purpose of his trip to the camp. He had so many questions to ask the major when he had the chance. _Have I been dealt a bad hand? _he thought. He needed answers desperately. The trip from Demacia all the way to the Kumungu jungle isn't the easiest of journeys, to climb mountains and avoid the worst parts of the Shurima Desert make it very long winded. He was tired and wanted to rest from today's hike, so he hoped that his discussion wouldn't take long. Eventually they came to an area of the camp that was much different from the crowded tents from before. Two very large tents homed themselves there, around 5 yards from each other. They were much out of the way of the cluttered camp.

"That is where you will be staying, I made my lot make it for you the day I got word that you would be coming. You might even find it much nicer than the nasty barracks that you are used to staying in." joked Fergus

"I dont know about that, I bet there are all sorts of nasties trying to make a home in my tent right now."

"Zilean's beard! I didn't expect the Might of Demacia to be so scared of bugs."

Garen glared at the major for a moment after that comment. He was not scared of bugs, Garen's real fears were actually something much stranger.

Fergus nodded his head toward the entrance of his tent and then ventured inside. Garen took a quick look around and then followed him in. _Wow, it looks like a home_ Garen thought. He was right, you wouldn't expect to find the things Fergus had here inside any other tent. As you came into the tent, you could see a little coffee table and three chairs around it, an open book was propped on the table along with a bottle of whiskey, accompanied by an empty glass that looked like it had been used recently. Fergus like his drink, in-fact there was a small cabinet nearby where the table, which Garen was sure, to be filled with lots of different drinks. It was like Fergus had purposely made this area of his tent to look like a living room, close to it was his 'dining room' with 5 seats tucked away neatly, it had not been used much. Towards the back of the tent was a lot of bookshelves, full of lots of different books, a desk full of a lot of paper work was stationed nearby the bookshelves, it looked rather messy and cluttered compared to the rest of his belongings.

The major sat down in the chair nearest to the bottle of whiskey and started to pour himself a glass.

"You know, you shouldn't drink so much. You have people to lead Major." advised Garen

"Did you come all the way here to tell me how to live my life? I will drink all I want! You wanted to come in here and talk privately, so c'mon, cut to the chase." retorted Fergus while looking at the clock to check for the time just to make sure he had an excuse to drink. He didn't want to start too early as he knew Garen was right.

Garen put his bag on one of the nearby seats. He reached in and grabbed the letter which he was meant to deliver personally to Major Fergus. Garen then sighed and started to speak.

"All I was trying to say was that its bad for you, its not like I am giving you a command Major, I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing. Just trying to help a friend. Here is the lett-" Garen had tried to explain, before he got cut off by Fergus' hand being outstretched in-front of him, almost demanding the letter.

"You are a good lad Garen, and you always have been. I know you are just trying to do what you think is right. Lets have a look at this letter then" said Fergus calming down a little.

Fergus opened up the letter addressed to him, and read:

_To, Major A. Fergus_

_I have sent you some of the best men Demacia has to offer, in the hopes that you solve your situation efficiently and as quickly as possible. The Dauntless Vanguards are up to any challenge and I have absolute belief that Captain Crownguard will assist you with anything you need him to. We have also sent the supplies and food that you have requested. Freeing up this area on the map would be a great deal for Demacia. We cannot afford to waste anymore time when our efforts may be needed elsewhere in the coming future. Count yourself lucky Major, I would not send this group of men for anyone. You are lucky that your situation sounds terrible and that Captain Crownguard holds you at such high regard._

_ Work fast Major,_

_ Jarvan Lightshield IV, the Exemplar of Demacia_

Fergus swallowed a lump in his throat. He knew then that what he had asked for was something he shouldn't have, especially from the Prince himself! But it was dire that he needed this assistance.

"What do you know about what were are doing here Garen?" inquired Fergus nervously.

"The only thing I was told was that I was to bring my men with me and carry supplies. From what I can guess is that there is something going on here. Why else would you build walls like that in a jungle? You are a reconnaissance unit that deals with spies and handling information, I find it very strange."

Garen cleared his throat and watched the Major for a moment to see what his reaction would be. However Fergus remained silent and Garen decided to continue.

"Major, do you have any idea what protects this jungle? What happened the last time people cut down the tree's here. She is going to know about what you did to make that stupid conspicuous wall. How are you and your men hidden? It makes you stand out like a sore thumb!" asked Garen desperately looking for the answers that he wanted.

"Okay, sit down. I will tell you everything."

Garen shook his head on the offer to sit down, even though he was tired and it is what he wished. He did not want to sit down right now, he would rather stand. The Major sighed and took in a deep breath and began to explain everything.

"The walls are necessary, we recently stole intel about what the 'Noxian Woodcutters' were really doing here months ago. They weren't just chopping down trees. They were looking for something and thought they could tear down the entire place to find it. But they got scared off last time as you already know, and now they are back and are taking a different approach to everything. They have a little army over there Garen! A little army! What can we do against that? We made the walls just in-case they had found our whereabouts, so that we would at least have a way of protecting ourselves, the men and women here are spies, researchers, and medics; not soldiers. We needed a small group of men who knew how to handle themselves against the numbers that they have, that is why you are here." Fergus explained.

Garen was taken a little aback by the sound of distress in Fergus' voice. He had never seen his old friend act like this before, after all – this man had once been feared by the enemy that he had just described as being a danger to his life. _It must be the old age_ Garen, he could not help but think that every-time he looked at Fergus today. The Major was not done yet, after a quick breather, he continued.

"As to you concerns about us using the trees of the jungle for our own needs, we actually made sure it would be okay to do such thing with The Huntress. The agreement that we have with her is that we can't extend our territory further than it already is, and to aid her in protecting the jungle," informed Fergus. He was a well spoken man whenever it came to being professional and giving instruction, a clear indication of his background. Finally Fergus began to smile once again "A pretty nice deal since we have no intention of chopping this place to bits anyway!"

"Well then, I will help you as much as I can Fergus. Its a shame that you can't fight anymore since you put on all that weight, you used to be quite scary back when you were teaching me a few things" Garen joked while laughing nervously in hopes to reassure the Major's worries.

"Haha aye, that's right lad. You were bloody awful at trying to sneak around from what I remember, a man with your size and shape, makes it impossible to become stealthy in any-way"

"Its not my best trait" Garen said quietly before scratching the back of his head, his face felt a little hot.

"I don't see you enough lad, in-fact I see your sister Luxanna much more, she is very popular with my wife and children you know." Chuckled the major as he picked up his glass of whiskey, now feeling much more comfortable and took a swig.

Garen sighed and thought about something that he had to put up with before he had to leave Demcia, he had gotten into an argument with his sister Lux about a subject he would rather avoid. Because of Garen's journey to the Kumungu Jungle, a certain explorer had been brought up in conversation between the two siblings. The Kumungu Jungle was home to a discovery that this Explorer himself had found, it was actually a pretty significant discovery, and anyone who had anything to do with the Institute of War would know about the Wriggles Lantern. Ezreal was the name of the Explorer who had discovered it, and Garen did not like Ezreal. He was a a man who was actually very talented and did many things which a lot of people found admirable, but Garen saw him to be cocky, small, it was almost like Ezreal was a boy; maybe a touch feminine.

The worst part was that Ezreal and his sister had something going on. He sometimes suspected that they could be maybe more than just friends, and this worried him. It wasn't proper for a Lady of House Crownguard to be like that. Garen shuddered thinking about what could happen if the two were to fall in love. He would prefer a more honourable man to take her away, someone like the Steward of the Lightshield Dynasty perhaps.

"I need to get some rest Major" Garen blurted out rather abruptly, he felt quite rude but he really was exhausted from days of walking.

"Its okay lad go rest yourself up. I suggest you change your uniform too, your the one who sticks out now boy hah-." Ordered the Major with a little concern in his eye.

Garen nodded and picked his travel bag back up, he then lifted his sword and rested it on his pauldron while turning and walked out the tent. He looked across to the tent that was 5 yards away, that is where he would be staying for the rest of the night, he knew that he had no other duties for the rest of the day and felt very happy to be walking towards his new home. Once he had gotten inside he realised it was much different from the tent he had just been in. There was no living room section or dining room area, it was just a regular tent. It had a bed with a footlocker at the bottom of it, the bed looked very neatly made and expecting of him, a Demacian officer jungle uniform rested on the covers waiting for him. A mirror to the far side of the room showed the tents entrance back to Garen, along with his reflection. There was a small metal bathtub in the middle of the room which looked extremely clean and an armchair which was fairly close by. Garen put his rucksack on the footlocker and left his sword to lay awkwardly against the armchair that was made of straw, and began to remove his clumsy-looking armour. First he took off the enormous long blue scarf around his neck, and unbelted his harnesses. Only when his armour was off could you really appreciate his body for what it was, the armour made him look oversized and a bit silly, but once it was off; his arms and torso stood out much more. He then took off his tabard, and continued until his boots were off.

Garen picked up the uniform off his bed, looked at it for a moment and then threw it out the way since he could no longer wait to get into bed, he knew it was rather early but he only really wanted a nap before he was called to have dinner with the men. He sat down on his bed and a sigh of relief hit him, in nothing but his trunks the air felt much cooler around his body, he decided to lay back and rested his eyes listening to the sounds of the insects and animals that inhabited this great green jungle. Cool air blew across his face and he lost consciousness.

Hours had passed, and the sun had disappeared from the sky. It was now very dark, throughout the encampment torches had been lit up, and you could hear men laughing and singing. The men of the Dauntless Vanguard had settled in nicely and were welcomed to be part of the family. The air felt much less humid now, but the heat had remained a little. A lot of the birds who were singing earlier had ended for the night and stopped their concert for the day, however the insects showed them up by carrying on with their performance all night long.

Garen woke up, he had slept longer than he anticipated and the tent was now very dark, light from the torches outside lit his room up enough for him to see, he reached for the lantern on his bedside table. He was quite lucky that he was an officer, the other men would not get a luxury tent like this, not that they would mind. They were trained to sleep on the hardest of rocks.

Garen lit the lantern and got out of bed, he started to exercise with press ups, he counted them. _Twenty_, that was enough for now. No need to overdo it, the aroma of food had whiffed itself into his tent, his belly grumbled. He was hungry for a meal, a big man needs to eat to keep up his physique after-all. He found the uniform he had thrown away earlier and began to put it on, it was tight-fitting on his body and looked pretty good, it is not something he was used to wearing since it looked fairly formal; no clumsy pauldrons this time. He looked at himself in a mirror, _not so bad _he thought. And paused for a while checking himself out, making sure he would look presentable.

Suddenly a very loud continuing banging noise could be heard outside, it wasn't right. Men shouting and women screaming had begun to accompany the strange noise. With a sense of urgency Garen rushed and put his boots on, he grabbed the lazy lain sword and ran out of the tent to see what was going on. As he exited the tent he saw the torches which had been put out to light up the camp during the night, the nights air felt cool on his face. The screaming of women had now stopped, but the men were still shouting, the only thing that was new was the sound of clanging of iron. A fight had erupted, Garen ran as fast as he could toward the destination of all these sounds, as he got towards the crowded tents he saw fire and smoke, other men in olive uniform were running towards the sound just as he was with their weapons readied.

"CAPTAIN!" called out a frantic voice before Garen, it was Charlie's. He was running towards Garen, however when they met up, they had crossed each others paths since Garen had continued to run. "I-its the Noxians, they are here!" Charlie tried to explain, running out of breath as he ran.

At that point Garen, ran faster, he was way ahead of Charlie at this point, other men were joining in this race. All sorts of sounds could be heard now, screams of different men, the sounds of death coming to those who were unlucky and unskilled. Two men ahead of Garen were talking as they ran.

"Henrik I am scared, they are saying that the Sinister Blade is here. What are we going to do?" worried the soldier.

"Don't worry, Markus, that Du Couteau bitch wont be able to deal with things now that the Dauntless Vanguard are here!" said Henrik bravely.

Garen stopped dead in his tracks, frozen at the sound of that name. He had a lot of history with that family, and especially with one individual in particular. He could not believe that of all places, she should be here, why here? Why now? Why as soon as he arrived. It was all too much to process and debate about right now. A different emotion stirred within Garen, he got butterflies in his belly, excitement washed over him, he knew that he would get a good fight.

"Cap whats wrong?" Charlie said, he had caught up to Garen, and was wondering why his Captain was standing still in-front of him.

Garen wasn't listening to Charlie at this point, he was too self absorbed of what was lain ahead of him. _Why couldnt it have been the idiot with the spinning axes _Garen thought as he started to run again. _No that wouldn't be fun, not as much fun as her. _Garen felt warm, perhaps a little hot. Not from the heat but from the prospect of being able to see her again, maybe he would have to kill her this time. The two soldiers Markus and Henrik were fighting just before him, they were a little outnumbered by their enemy. The Noxians were not wearing olive like the Demacians, instead they wore their red and black like usual, it was probably for the best since they could still remain almost camouflaged in the jungle like that, but it was for arrogance that they really wore their colours. They did not care who found them, if they had to fight, it would just be more blood for Noxus.

_**Courage**_

"DEMACIA!" Garen let loose a warcry before running up to assist Henrik and Markus, he brought down his sword one of the unsuspecting Noxian soldiers. The force had cut through the soldier, splitting him in half, blood and organs were everywhere. Garen's mighty sword was now bloodied, but not by murder, justice. Such things were necessary, no matter how bad things got, to Garen, this was something he was used to, and there maybe have been a point in his life where he regretted taking a mans life. But that was before he had killed hundreds, almost thousands of men.

"DEMACIA!" Markus and Henrik were now joining in with Garen's warcry, they felt safer now that the Might of Demcia had arrived on the battlefield.

Smoke and heat was getting into Garen's eyes but he did not stop, he kept on moving towards the remaining enemies that stood before him, they shocked at their comrade being split in half so easily by this enormous man moments ago.

**Judgment**

Garen held his sword at his side and began spinning, it was almost magical. The speed he span at was a blur, and as he got closer to the Noxian soldiers they didnt have time to be shocked and braced themselves for the impending death they were about to receive. The first soldier tried to block Garen's spin with his sword held out, Garen's blade touched the soldiers' sword and cut it in half like it was nothing. Nothing could stop this tornado of steel now. The soldier who attempted to block Garen was now on the floor in pieces screaming in pain, looking down at the mess that used to be his body. _How could this be possible the _soldier thought.

Garen stopped spinning, the jumbled pieces of bodies on the floor were no concern to him, he had done what was right and continued running onwards without a care to look at the chaos he created. He could do that later, he had people's lives to save. Garen's olive uniform was now stained lots of different colours of red and black. The smell of a battlefield was strange, you could smell the food that the soldiers had been eating still, but ontop of that; blood, smoke and steel. He saw lots of Demacian soldiers in-front of him, they were not fighting any soldiers in particular, but backing away slightly, thinking of a plan to deal with the obstacle before them.

A blade spins rapidly through the air towards one of the Demacian soldier's face, it his with such great force that the rest of his body is knocked back, he flies to the ground with a big thud. Blood spraying everywhere, the knife that had been thrown before was one of many, each bouncing of each of the standing soldiers. Blood spraying all around like paint on a canvas, and the artist was no where to be seen.

_**Shunpo**_

A blur appears in-between the remaining standing soldiers. **S**_**inister steel**_ flashes and they all fell down adding to the masterpiece. A woman with long red hair dressed in tight-fitting leather stood there in a battle position ready for her next opponent.

The artist was Katarina Du Couteau, one of the most beautiful women in Valoran. Garen stared at her for a while. Looking at her long red hair which went down her back loosely and carefree, it was the same deep red colour of blood which belonged to the men she had just killed. And as hot as the fire Garen was now feeling in his heart, not because he wanted to avenge his men – no, Katarina always made him feel hot like this, and his heart pounded. She turned her head to look at him, her big beautiful wide emerald cat-like eyes glistened as she recognised him. Her face was something of perfection, it was shaped ovally, her sweet lips were full and plump, they would make any man want to receive the kiss off death of which they had to offer, they were coloured a softer red than her hair and neatly plucked eyebrows. Even the imperfection of her face which came in the form of a giant scar across her eye was just as beautiful, it did not look gnarled or grisly like most other facial scaring people suffered. It suited her, and she wore it like a well-made dress.

It was hard to think that such a pretty face belonged to such a majestic twisted murderer. Her body was quite petite, her black and silver outfit outfit was rather revealing. Her breasts were not too big, they were just right for her body. Her firm bosom looked a little swollen in the bustier that she wore. If you had the chance to stare long enough at her cleavage you would end up having one of the best views of your life before dying. Her bustier was only really covering her breasts, so her belly too was on show. She, like Garen, was obviously no slouch in working on her body. Her abdominal muscles were not rock hard, but you could see they had been regularly worked on. Her waist was small, her hips were much larger, not large enough to spoil her petite look. In all her figure was hourglass shaped. She had a big black tribal body tattoo that went up the side left side of her body, it started from top of her neck, went down to her left breast and continued down to her waist and then her hips, whether it went further would be hard to tell because believe it or not, as revealing as her clothes were, she still had her tight leather pants on! Which made her buttocks looked big and plump.

Finally after looking at Garen long enough she spoke.

"Oh, I almost didn't recognise you in that getup, well, this makes things easier for me to hurt you" she laughed maniacally, compared to Garen, she was pure evil, the villian, and Garen was the classical hero here to stop her. These were two very different people, their beliefs were completely different, but they shared one common goal; they wanted to better the other person every time their paths crossed. She pouted sarcastically and continued. "don't you want to give me a challenge?"

Her voice was very womanly, nothing made it sound cute or high pitched, it was smooth, and seductive. Everything about Katarina reeled you in, it was clear she knew this fact and would use it to her advantage.

Garen said nothing in reply and just readied his sword, trying to hold back the smile he had inside of him. He felt giddy knowing that he would be able to test his true ability. He knew that he would not die today, he would never give her that satisfaction. This whole time they had been standing in the middle of men fighting, screaming, and dying. The sounds, the smells and the hot smoke of burning tents and banners, could not reach these two now, they were focused on each other so intensely that if anyone was to look at them, they would feel as though they were being sunk down deep in the the depths of an great ocean, where no light could possibly reach, crushed by the immense pressure between these rivals.


	2. Chapter 2

Katarina could wait no longer, she felt a little impatient that Garen had not yet made his move, in-fact – she was furious, betrayed by this opponent who had decided to become passive not lifting a finger of effort. Enraged she attempted to make the first strike by throwing a flurry of her many replenishing knives at him. He could no longer stand still in a stiff pose, he had to dodge this incoming onslaught otherwise he would suffer the shame of drawing blood before she did. Sprinting as fast as he could in the little space that the battlefield had to offer, Garen could hear the sound of the whistling flying steel whizzing past his ears as he ran, which made his pulse rise and gave him a confidence boost for each of the **bouncing blades** that he had successfully dodged so far. Katarina did not let up, she disappeared from sight for a second.

**Shunpo**

The next second that she had become visible she was behind Garen with two jagged short-swords in her hands, ready to plunge the **sinister steel** into Garen's flesh. Fortunately for him, he was able to anticipate this in time to turn on the spot to block the slash intended for his back, now aimed at his chest, the clang of his sword and hers made such a satisfying sound. Their faces were close now and they quickly gazed into each others eyes, watching each others killing intent build up inside, their veins pumping blood around their body so frantically.

While these two rivals were in a deadlock, the men who were having their battle in the encampment had started to die down, quite literally. Bodies of red and black clothed men were accompanied by the olive clad soldiers that were defending their temporary home, and those who were left alive had started to turn their attention to Garen and Katarina. The Noxian forces were dwindling and it was apparent that with the help of the Dauntless Vanguard that the Demacians were going to fight off their invaders.

Katarina and Garen weren't really aware that they had gotten themselves a crowd and continued to swing at each other, hoping to better the other. A stray soldier started to run toward his Captain's aid hoping to finish off the red-haired enemy commander, killing an important figure of Noxus would change a lot of things in Valoran and if he could put his bravery to the test here, he would feel more satisfied in life, he would no longer be just a nameless soldier; he would be the grunt who changed the world for the better. Instinctively Katarina saw him running out of the corner of her eye.

**Shunpo**

Katarina disappeared from sight again, she was no longer in-front of the enormous Captain who was now looking around to see where she had gotten to, and within that second, Katarina had reappeared behind the grunt who wanted to change his future, a swift spin with her swords cut the man open. For a moment he stumbled forward, trying to regain his footing, unfortunately the strength to carry on standing did not dwell within him and thus with after a valiant effort he fell to the ground, still breathing. His actions had inspired the men watching around him, they now had fire in their belly as he did, also hoping to make a difference.

"NO!" Garen shouted at the top of his lungs.

No man had listened and kept on running towards Katarina. She was not scared of what was coming, she in-fact relished in the thought of having this many opponents at once, and with a wicked smile upon her face she was ready to bring them the pain that they deserved.

**Death Lotus**

In the spot where Katarina had stood now was a black and silver blur, rapidly spinning on the spot. The sound coming from it was almost mechanical, but what was happening inside was much different. Many of **bouncing blades **came spraying out of the black and red twister, each wave of the barrage of blades looked almost like a petal of a lotus flower that was trying to spread out, the surrounding soldiers were hit heavily and received grievous wounds. Garen felt responsible for these men's actions, he could not just stand there and let this happen and so he rushed forward with his sword in hand, ready to give Katarina a **decisive strike**. He could not afford to waste time dodging the knives this time, he knew that he would have to suffer some damage if he was going to help these defenceless fools, once he got close enough he was able to bring his sword down upon her. The spinning torrent of blades stopped immediately, nothing was moving apart the dust and dirt which was dispersing from all of the work that the earth underneath Katarina had to endure while she had been spinning on it.

She was silenced and could not speak, she was stunned by Garen's strike. She wanted to act upon her** voracity **and end all the lives of those who dared to challenge her before, but she could do nothing and instead stared at Garen for a few seconds locked under his spell. Again she was enraged, and once she felt like she was able to move again it was clear she had to kill this man who got in the way of her prey. Garen had taken a few hits from the blades before but he knew that his fight with Katarina wasn't over yet, so he thought he would make the first move this time around.

**Courage, Judgment**

It was Garen's turn to spin now. With his sword held out before him he used its weight and the weight of his body to turn rapidly, his control over this was masterful, he was able to move in a direction and turn at the same time, choosing to focus on moving towards his target. There was one penalty however, he was much slower which gave Katarina an advantage, as long as she kept up with his speed she would be able to get out of the way of him, and so she sheathed her short-swords and began to run throwing **bouncing blades** at him. Unfortunately for Katarina, most of her knives were not hitting him at all, they would bounce off the steel tornado that was coming towards her unrelentingly with a satisfying 'tinging' noise, but she did not give up, she would continue to throw her blades at him in hopes that she would find a hole in his defence.

The spectators were watching in awe at the two rivals, it was almost as if they were at a wedding, and the bride and groom were having their first dance, but the groom was leading the dance with a fancy spin, the occasional knife was bouncing off the groom into the now evading crowd. Garen and Katarina moved quite majestically and with absolute finesse, never holding back because they knew that the both of them could handle each others best. And because they knew each others limits it was clear that they had known each other for a very long time, so long that it would be the same as a couple who would have probably married at this stage of their life if they were together ironically.

At this point Garen had to stop spinning, it took a lot of effort to work his body like that, and to consider the fact that he had been travelling for weeks and received little respite was exhausting, even the very small nap he got earlier was not enough to revitalise him, he was disappointed in himself and would have to shield himself from the incoming blades from the still full-of-energy Katarina. How does one shield themselves with no shield? With their sword and arm. Garen turned to the side and waited for the impact, suddenly, several knives planted themselves in his body, he felt them puncture his body like needles. The impact felt hot and blood started to run down his now bloodied arm.

A very wide smile showed up on Katarina's face, she had done it, she saw she made him suffer damage enough to hurt his confidence, she ran towards him with her short-swords drawn in hopes to finish of her kill. Anticipating this Garen with his injured arm swung with what little effort he had left in that arm towards her. The force from the clash of their steel would be too much for his arm and he was disarmed, at least he would be unharmed for now.

"THATS IT THATS IT, THIS TIME YOU ARE GOING TO DIE" Screamed the blood-frenzied Katarina at the first sign of her defenceless prey.

She thrust her two short-swords forward towards Garen's exposed gut. Miraculously and very bravely, Garen decided to gamble and grabbed onto the sharp blades of her jagged swords with his giant hands. He managed to get a good grip on them without having his fingers chopped off, but the palms of his hands were cut open and gushed with blood. He then chucked her swords aside to disarm her and then threw a full force punch at her, she didn't expect or have time to dodge this and so it hit her and she was thrown onto her back. As soon as she hit the dust Garen didn't hesitate to mount her and he held her hands down with his blood covered hands to stop her from reaching her knives.

"GET OFF ME, LET-ME-GO!" Katarina cried out, struggling to get the extremely heavy man that was locking her down to the ground off from her.

This was the signal that lead the men to roar in cheer at the defeat of the invaders and Katarina. They would not question the fact that their Captain had just hit a woman with his fists, no room for manners or chivalry here. She was just as deadly as the man who planted her on the ground and had to be treated as his equal even if Garen was a behemoth of a man which gave him a bit of an unfair advantage over the petite assassin who laid before him.

"Get her in chains!" called out a stern voice behind the spectators, it belonged to Fergus who was now walking into the ring followed by another officer who Garen had not seen before, and a soldier who was carrying shackles.

"NO! YOU WONT TAKE ME!" Katarina was still screaming at the rejection of her fate at the top of her lungs.

Garen took one of his hands off from the arm of the struggling woman beneath him and covered her mouth up.

"Don't Kat, just give up" Garen pleaded to Katarina sympathetically in a low voice that only she could hear.

Almost immediately she stopped her effort to break free and relaxed. Her face was pretty much covered by his hand, all you could see was her eyes. Her eyebrows changed shape and you could tell that underneath his hand that she was pouting, she then returned her eyebrows to normal. Garen lifted his hand off her and suddenly felt all of his energy draining rapidly from his body, he had lost a lot of blood and was still extremely tired. The bottom half of Katarina's face was now covered in Garen's blood and he was now feeling guilty about his decision to dirty her beautiful face.

The world around him was turning black and his vision became blurry, his head felt light yet he could still hear what was going on around him. Aside from the cheers of victory, he heard the grass being trod on near him as someone was walking up to him. The only sense he could go off from this point was his smell, and to his amazement he could smell the sweet scent of roses which would be the last thing he would do that night and quickly passed out.

Some time passes, the battlefield that was full of smoke and fire had changed back to the peaceful encampment that it was before all the chaos. The only thing that was different from before was the sound of men working hard, they were working on patching up the wall which was broken down during the night. The wall looked a little odd now, the space where the wood had been splintered and busted open was replaced by a different coloured wood making it stand out, if anything it made the wall look even more makeshift than before. You could hear the sound of mallets, hammers and saws being used, the kind of thing you would expect to hear from a work-site, the satisfying sound of progress.

Garen opened his eyes slightly, his body was starting to wake up and he beginning to get the feeling back in his body. He ached all over, he had not mended well which was odd for a man with Garen's **perseverance**. A small prick in Garen's arm was the next that he noticed so he opened his eyes properly now looking for cause of the odd feeling. A man and a nurse was standing over him, watching him with expectant eyes.

"Good morning Captain Crownguard, although-" The man cut off and looked at the clock and then continued "its almost afternoon now, hope you're hungry"

This man was accompanying Fergus last night in a officers uniform, however today he was wearing a white coat. He was most likely a doctor here and probably someone very important, his appearance gave you this impression. He was fairly young for an officer, older than Garen however and was is in late twenties. He had black hair that was fashioned into a pony tail and wore glasses. Garen then saw a syringe in his hands that looked empty, recently used; it must have been what he felt in his arm.

"What's that?" Garen asked pointing to the syringe quite abruptly and rudely. He had no idea now, that the man he was being rude to actually outranked him, so it was pretty bad for him to be behaving like this, though he could probably play it of on not feeling fully awake if he had to.

"This? Oh its just something to help you get better, that's all. You were bleeding pretty badly after all that ruckus." explained the spectacled man.

He might be right, Garen was already starting to feel better and sat up in his bed, examining his body, looking at all the different bandages, _quite over the top_ Garen thought. He had been in worse situations and could handle it, he jumped to his feet and hit the deck, starting his ritual of press-ups. The nurse screamed.

"You shouldn't do that! Your stitches will open and you will bleed again!" she said in a frantic tone.

"She is right Garen, you had some deep cuts that you don't want to re-open just yet, it would be bad for you."

_Garen_? This man barely knows me and he's calling me by my own name like he is a friend. Garen had now finished his press-ups and stood up next to the nurse and doctor, making them feel dwarfed.

"Sorry but I have not been introduced to you yet, who are you?" Garen asked quite politely now, compared to his rude outburst earlier.

"I am Major Beckett, and this is my world that you are in, so if you would please sit down and rest since my word goes here. It is better for your health!" said Beckett, stuttering on his command, intimidated by Garen's size.

Just as he finished his sentence a clap of thunder rocked the infirmary tent, Garen didn't realise it until now but it was raining pretty heavily, and you could hear the pitter-patter of each rain drop hitting the canvas. It sounded quite relaxing and the air felt ice cold on his bare body. How could he be learning about his surroundings so slowly? He was naked. _They must have stripped me off when they patched me up_ Garen thought. Feeling a little exposed now, Garen quickly snatched his bedsheets to cover his body, and felt a sudden urgency to know exactly what had happened after he blacked out.

"I don't remember anything else from last night apart from my fight with Lady Du Couteau, I would appreciate being filled in, and also. Where can I, get some clothes?" Garen asked with a little embarrassment in his voice.

"Fetch his clothes please" Beckett commanded the nurse before she swiftly walked off knowing exactly where to go, she would be quite happy to be away from the head doctor to be honest as he was a pretty irritating person.

"Well, once you _bravely_ passed out, we managed to round up all the loose Noxians that were left and put them in chains," Beckett began sarcastically. "Once we had done that, we made preparations to fix the wall and deal with the bodies."

"You sound like you were involved with a lot of those things Major" Garen was now speaking a little more formally now that he knew this man out ranked him.

"Yes well that's because I have a lot of say of what goes on around here, Major Fergus isn't the only one who gives command, and since I am a doctor that makes me a little more useful inside the camp"

The Major was boasting but Garen was having none of it, he wasn't impressed. It was a little odd though that they would have two majors in a small encampment like this – yes he was a field doctor which would be pretty messy in times of war and very stressful at times, but that didn't give him the right to be so uppity. And now that Garen thought of it, where would the good doctor be staying, he only saw two officers tents, not three; in the infirmary perhaps?

The nurse had returned with another, a brand new set of olive officer clothing was in the arms of the nurse who had walked away previously, the new nurse was struggling to carry a giant sword which belonged to Garen. This sword rarely left his side.

"Understood Major, and what of Lady Du Couteau?" asked Garen politely now starting to put on his clothes.

"Oh, she's with the other prisoners rotting away I'd presume haha"

"What? You can't do that, she is a lady, did you command this too?" barked Garen.

"Well it was more of an agreement, it didn't really occur to us that she needed special treatment considering that she is an enemy." Laughed the annoying Major

"This is absolutely wrong Major, we need to follow the rules of war, I am going to speak to Major Fergus!" snarled Garen who was pretty angry now, inconsistencies irritated him and things should always be done by the book.

The nurse who was nearly out of energy holding the giant blade was now relieved of her duty since Garen had now snatched the enormous thing from her and ran out of the tent frantically. He would not go to see Fergus like he had said he would, instead he would look for Katarina and make sure she had been treated fairly. He really had no idea where she would be though since he had not had proper time to walk around the encampment. The rain was pretty heavy and he soon got drenched as he ran around the different tents looking around for a sign, the floor was pretty soggy and he made a lot of splashes in the muddy puddles as he went, trying not to slip up on the wet grass. The smoke filled battlefield was totally eradicated, it was like it didn't even exist now, like it nothing ever happened last night, but the encampment was much different from the time he had arrived too as it was almost baron, most likely because of the weather but also maybe because they had a lot of casualties.

Before he left the infirmary tent, Garen was only really thinking of himself while bolting to the only exit he saw before him and didn't think about whether there were lots of men inside getting treatment, his men, how could he be so callous? It was not often that the Captain of the Dauntless Vanguard should forget about the men he cared so dearly about. But things were different, he needed to know what fate his rival shared, what was more important to him now.

Garen headed toward the only distinctive noise he could hear in order to get a hint of where life in the encampment could be, it was the noise of the busy workmen fixing the wall with their saws and hammers. When he arrived there he quickly admired their craftsmanship, they must have worked very hard since the wall was almost finished and fully patched up now, aside from the way it looked, it did its job and looked very sturdy. It was amazing what talent the army could bring in with the soldiers that Demacia recruited. Garen got the sign he wanted, nearby this wall were many soaked Noxian soldiers all chained up together. There was only one solitary pole in the ground with a woman chained to it, standing nearby was a young soldier who was shivering watching his prisoner. The young freckled faced man looked like a drowned rat, his blonde hair was now a orangey flat mess, it was Charlie, always being made to do the things other people didn't want to do.

The race to find the treasure was now over and Garen could act less frantic, he trod over to Charlie and cleared his throat.

"I need your help Charlie, but please don't overact to what I am about to do" asked Garen quite softly

The young man jumped a little, he did not notice that Garen was close, he did not hear the splashing of his footsteps draw nearer to him until his Captain spoke to him, but he did not react at all like he had been asked, he was too focused on his prisoner truth be told, and he was almost frozen solid from the ice cold rain.

Garen lifted his sword over his head with two hands and brought it down with a lot of force cutting cleanly through the thick chains that bound the woman and the pole together.

"Captain.." Charlie was surprised at what he had just seen, but he was not allowed to question it anly longer and just simply watched on.

He was not the only one surprised, the other Noxian soldiers were watching too, hoping they would get the same deal, maybe they were going to be set free?

"C'mon Charlie give me a hand we are going to take her back to my tent, could you lead the way" Garen asked.

The woman looked up now, her red hair was drenched but she didn't look like a drowned rat like Charlie, she was stone faced, she did not want let anyone know she was freezing cold right now, loving the that fact she would be getting out of the rain very soon. Without emotion she stood up and waited. Charlie also came to life now and he had started to walk without complaint through the rain. Garen tugged on the chain that he had cut previously so that the woman would follow him in her shackles. They passed through an assortment of different tents and finally into the clearing which two tents were positioned quite far from each other and stood outside the one which belonged to Garen.

"I need you to go back to those Noxian soldiers and make some sort of canopy to stop them getting wet from the rain, they are being treated like animals and we are breaking the rules of war." ordered Garen as his hot breath caused some condensation in the air before him.

Charlie didn't make a sound, he just nodded his head and walked away, he was a good soldier, always doing what he had been asked even if it was something he did not want to do, and he did not really want to do this nor did he understand why his enemy would be getting this easy way out, but it was not his place to question – and he did feel sorry for them to be sharing the same fate under the weather as he had been.

Garen tugged the woman inside of his tent. It was funny to think that yesterday they had been in the blistering heat and now they were in freezing cold rain, at least they wouldn't get wet in this tent anymore. At least he wouldn't.

"You will dry off in here, I am really sorry that you were treated like that." apologised Garen while looking through his footlocker for a towel.

She snorted at his kindness and stood in the middle of his tent waiting, unsure what he was up to while he rummaged through his belongings.

"You're a strange man Crownguard." Katarina pointed out.

He walked over towards her with a towel and put it in her hands, although she was shackled she was able to move her arms around quite a lot, they were not too tight thankfully. She scrubbed at her hair trying to dry it, meanwhile Garen closed the lit of his footlocker and sat down upon it, watching her.

"Maybe so, but you are a lady and you need to be treated like one, I don't think that's strange." he protested

"So you think I am a feeble little girl?"

"I didn't say that, a woman like you needs to be treated with respect"

Katarina laughed and threw the towel into his face playfully, it smelt strongly of roses. Her hair was frizzy and needed to be brushed or combed. Garen stood up.

"I will go fetch a nurse, you look awful. Also I will get some clothing for you too" informed Garen.

"No, no nurse." She replied. "You're the only one I can trust here"

Taken a little aback at what she said Garen had to only oblige at her request.

"I suppose you are going to give me a speech about how glorious the system of Noxus is and how I am doing such a weak Demacian thing right now by showing you "respect" like usual" he joked.

It was quite clear that these two had run into each other many times over the past when they spoke to each other like this, like friends and not enemies. Garen was a little unsure at what to do now, she was still wearing her tight leather clothing that was drenched through, but he did not know if he would have anything that she could wear that would be in her size, it seemed stupid that she would not let him go see a nurse. He would have to check his travel-pack for something since he still had not emptied it yet.

"_I know what you could wear_, it will do for now until your clothes dry off." Garen suggested.

He opened up his bag and rummaged inside for a second, he then pulled out a plain white vest that would look very big on her, but since it was a vest it would not be that bad, or so he hoped. Garen then lifted up the vest in order to get Katarina's approval.

"I guess it will do, that wont fit though. You idiot." she complained.

"I am sure you can deal with it for now Lady Du Couteau" replied Garen sarcastically.

"Alright then hurry up and get this over with!"

"Excuse me? What do you mean?" Garen asked, confused.

"Undress me, its not like I can do it myself since you have me tied up"

"Please Kat, let me get a nurse to do this, I don't have any keys for your shackles to let you free, nor do I think I could trust you."

"Well you will just have to deal with it, you're meant to be brave, _a shining example for all men of Demacia_ and you can't do a simple task like undressing a woman? Ha you really are weak, trust me I would rather do it myself, but seeing as you can't get me out of these," She lifted up her shackles to show him. "then I don't see any other way." she complained again.

Reluctantly Garen stepped forward, towering over her. Her emerald eyes gazing up at his face as he began to take off her weapons. The two short-swords were still on her back, in-fact she was covered in weapons, why had she not been stripped of them before? Garen would lay each weapon near the footlocker as he took them off one by one. Once he had taken away the swords he started to get rid of all the knives she had strapped to her body which took some time. Garen had always wondered where she managed to summon so many knives into battle when she fought, it was something that could not really be explained with logic and was more magic, just like the way she moved like a blur and the way he could spin rapidly or silence his enemies with a **decisive strike**.

The rain continued on and so did the thunder, each clap echoing through the jungle. Garen had now finished taking off all of her weapons and started to pull her gloves off her hands, which wasn't too difficult but her bracers would be because of the shackles.

"Y-you're boots next, I need you to sit down" Garen choked, pointing at his bed, gesturing her to sit down.

She rolled her eyes and sat down, lifting her legs towards him. He stood there for a moment, he was getting more nervous each time he had to remove something off her body.

"Come on Demacia get a move on!" She playfully teased him.

Garen grabbed her boots and started to pull them off slowly, she watched closely as he slid them off, she was enjoying it.

"My belt." She was leading him now.

Like the good soldier he was, he did as he was told. Perhaps she wasn't the only one who was enjoying this, Garen reached for the belt and unbelted it, he got a little carried away now and had the audacity to even start undoing the buttons on her pants ever so delicately with his giant hands. Suddenly the splashing of puddles could be heard just outside Garen's tent and Charlie emerged through the entrance of his tent out of breath.

"Captain, I did as you asked _and,_ I have all the keys for every prisoner here!" reported the young man.

Once Charlie had finished his sentence he realised what was going on, he saw the red-haired enemy officer on his Captains bed with her legs parted and Garen standing between them.

"Er Garen?" questioned Charlie.

"Corporal? What have I told you about calling me by my first name" Garen scolded Charlie, hoping that he would put his mind on something else "I was just disarming Lady Du Couteau of her weapons."

A terrible excuse, but the loyal dog believed him naïvely for now. Garen turned away from Katarina briskly and walked toward Charlie, opening up his hand expectantly.

"These keys, do they also contain the key for Lady Du Couteu's shackles?" asked Garen.

"Yes they do Cap. Why? You're not freeing her are you?"

"No I am not freeing her, I am just going to help her feel more comfortable. There is no better prison guard that I haha" Garen played it off.

Its not like Garen was lying, he would not free her, but he would let her loose in hopes that he would be able to get out of the painfully embarrassing game that Kat had set for him.

"Yes, every Noxian who was captured last night Cap. Their freedom all belongs in those keys, including hers" Charlie explained while placing the keys in Garen's care.

"Good, have you seen from Major Fergus at all? Could you tell him that Kata- I mean Lady Du Couteau is with me for the time being please."

"Certainly Cap but, the Major aint' at the encampment at the moment, he went out to make sure there wasn't anymore Noxians waiting to ambush us, well. He went to check the perimeter is more of what he was gunna' do"

"I see, in that case. You should go dry yourself off for a bit, grab something to eat too. I expect that to take an hour and a bit to do, once you are done I would like you to go see if the Major is back, if not wait outside his tent and let him know I need to speak with him." ordered Garen

"Sure thing, thanks Cap I'm starving" laughed the young man turning away with a spring in his step.

"Cute kid" Katarina's voice reached Garen from his bed. She was still on it, waiting for him.

"Yeah he is a good lad." replied Garen still staring at the empty entrance of his tent with the keys in his hand.

Katarina got off Garen's bed and walked around his enormous body like a cat would walk through your legs, touching the sides of his body. He leather pants were sliding down her legs slightly now since she had nothing to support them, her undergarments were showing.

"What are you doing? Here give me your hands!" Garen's face felt a little hot and he was starting to blush.

She lifted her shackles towards him and he tried various keys in the lock trying to find the right one to get her off his back.

"Uh oh, not that one, that one doesn't go in _this hole_" she teased him a few times as he failed, aggravating him.

He tried another key and it fit perfectly, she was free from him finally, he could rest. He wouldn't have to go through this torture of undressing her. The shackles hit the floor with a satisfying thud and she sprung back ready to strike. Garen didn't need to think, he raised his first ready for a fight, he could not believe that she would want to fight and run away after all he had done to help her. She went back into a relaxing pose and started laughing and slapped him softly on the face.

"Don't worry, I wont run for now, are you ready to continue?" she suggesting he would continue taking of all of her clothes.

"No you do the rest yourself" Garen disagreed, folding his arms and turning around so he could not see.

"There's no need to be a gentleman, I am your enemy after all."

"Tell me, why is an assassin in the Kumungu Jungle with an army?" interrogated Garen while listening to clothes being thrown around his room.

"And you expect me to tell you like that? You are wanting a lot today aren't you Mr. Demacia"

"Well its just really fishy, usually it would be that prick Darius leading all those men, it doesn't suit you."

"Well I don't think I feel like sharing anything, unlike you" she tapped him on the shoulder.

Garen turned around to look at her, she was not wearing the vest that he had suggested earlier, she looked pretty good in it. It was baggy and loose on her though, so it was somewhat revealing so Garen had to avert his eyes to stop himself from seeing too much. He noticed her clothing was thrown around his room without a care, this was annoying, and so he sighed and went around his tent gathering them.

"We need to hang these up to dry." he insisted.

"Yes Captain!" she saluted.

"You did it wrong, that's not how we Demacians do it. Why are you playing games, and to think you call me strange"

"Aw you got to let me have some fun, being here disgusts me. I hate being around you and your people, you are too nice. You have to do everything the proper way and it drives me mad. So I thought it would be fun to make you feel uncomfortable at the very least!"

"I thought you didn't feel like sharing?."

She bit her lip realising he had made a point, it annoyed her if he got the upper hand on her at any point, they were rivals after-all. Feeling fed up she leapt onto his bed and laid there.

"You're turn Demacia, you must be sopping wet too" she sighed.

"I suppose so" Garen agreed, he probably should change too.

He put Katarina's clothes on some of the supporting beams of his tent to dry off. He had to change clothes a lot since he had arrived here, that was quite annoying really, he would have preferred not to 'faff' around by changing all the time. He walked back over to his bed, ignoring the woman who lay there and went through his backpack searching for some clothes to wear. Once he found something comfortable he put the bag to one side and then began to remove the officer gear he had received earlier that day.

Unlike Garen who preferred to look away, Kat would rather watch him undress as she found it amusing to put him on the spot to do all of these things. He took of his shirt first and laid it on-top of the footlocker near Katarina's weapons, she watched him do this and admired his body, she enjoyed the way it was shaped with all the muscles he had and scars that he had all over him. _I had a hand in making some of those probably _she thought as he started to unbutton his pants.

"Close your eyes" Garen asked quietly.

And so she did. He felt safer now and quickly took them off and put some shorts on, but little did he know, she was peeping and taking in everything he had to offer.

"You can open then now" he said happily.

But she also knew she could look now too. She opened her eyes and sat up, she patted an empty spot on the side of his bed gesturing him to sit down. He wasn't feeling reluctant anymore and just sat down beside her. She snatched the towel that she used earlier and started rubbing his hair with a big smile on her face.

"Its only fair I get my turn too." she said playfully

She threw his towel aside and laughed at his messy hair. This felt so strange, at times they could feel so comfortable with each other and other times it was so tense, the bitter rivals were laughing together as friends.

"You're not going to reach for your weapons and try to stab me at any point are you?" asked Garen

"Not right now, I am having fun"

"You still look a mess Kat, will you allow me to do something?"

"Just what exactly are you planning Demacia, going to man up huh?" she jested and poked his bandages quite roughly making him cough in pain a little.

He reached for his bag and scuffled inside once again, he pulled out a fine looking wooden comb that looked like a lot of workmanship had been put into it, it was not just an ordinary comb. The comb had different groves and patterns carved into it, it was quite pretty for something solely made of wood. Katarina looked puzzled as the giant man held the tiny comb in his great big hands.

"This belonged to my mother, but she lent it to me when I was very young in hopes that I would tame my hair." Garen said while looking at the comb reminiscently. "Will you allow me to fix up your hair Kat?"

She turned bright red at his request, how dare he ask something so bizarre out of the blue. But she knew her hair was probably just as messy as his, she remembered that he was being particularly strange when he was undressing her earlier.

"No way! What's wrong with you … I guess it wouldn't hurt though" She replied reluctantly, her face was so red now that it matched her hair.

She turned her back to him so that he would not be able to see her face and crossed her legs sitting up straight waiting. Garen couldn't really believe what he was about to do, or what he had just asked, if he got caught now he surely would be in trouble however, he knew they would not be disturbed for a while yet and started to comb her hair. It did not knot considering it was frizzy and had been rubbed with a towel after being out in the rain, his beautiful comb worked its way through her hair in unison, two beautiful things accepting each other for what they were and working together. Garen moved slightly closer as he worked his way around the crown of her head in order to try attempt to smell the scent of roses once again, he was actually quite fond of the smell now.

"But really Demacia what is wrong with you? I've seen you recover from the most grievous of wounds but there you are, all bandaged up looking pathetic" asked Katarina with a tiny bit of concern in her voice.

"Huh? I wasn't aware that I was healing any differently Dr. Du Couteau" joked Garen.

"Hmm." Katarina paused in thought while Garen was delicately finishing her hair pondering what could be happening to her rival, he was acting strange but that would not change the way his body worked. "Well if you don't feel any different then its probably nothing, I just want to make sure that you are in tip-top condition before we fight again"

She leaned back and rested her head on Garen's chest, she didn't care anymore, _may as well make myself feel like its home_ she thought while closing her eyes relaxing in the security of the man that sat behind her. Things like this never really happened between the two ever. If they ever had the opportunity in the past to converse without having a fight then they would be talking about politics and treaties, it would always be business. After years of knowing of each other, maybe now they would finally get a chance to know each other instead. Garen flinched a little when she leant back, almost as if they were fighting again but he rarely lost his cool in battle so why would he let something like this get to him now? It was almost as if he was dreaming from the nap he had yesterday and hadn't woken up yet since this was feeling so surreal.

"Why do you trust me?" Garen asked.

"Huh?" Kat replied in a lazy tone.

"A few moments ago you said that you can only trust me here."

Kat sighed and explained "Because I just do, our paths have crossed so many times, so in a way I know how you think, and you always do things the right way … even if its not my way of doing it right. I am in safe hands basically" once she finished she reached for his giant hand and lifted it with her hers, which looked tiny in comparison, and made him put it onto her belly wrapping his arm around her. "Your not a bad guy Demacia, I know you wouldn't hurt me, well, you did knock my on my ass last night but that's different, right?

"Right" Garen nodded and didn't bother to move his hand, he may as well accept the 'weirdness' for what it was and just enjoy it, it wasn't such a bad thing really after-all, and he had the woman he secretly admired in his arms. He felt really guilty for what he had done the previous night now.

"I am sorry hitting you last night Kat, and hurting you so many times in the past" Garen apologised.

With his free hand he started to touch all the cuts and bruises that she had on her softly, which was quite a feat for a hands of that size, a surge of electricity went through Katarina's body as Garen touched her shattering her reality, she wished he could touch her all the time, not just her bruises. She was quite banged up though, he really should have gotten a nurse.

She didn't bother replying to his apology since she didn't really care that she had hurt him that night also, it was all part of the job and if she had to kill him some day, she would, without contemplation. Garen on the other hand would always find a way out of killing her and imprison her if he could help it, letting justice decide her fate, where as she would kill him in order to get him out of the way and give blood for Noxus, though she did smile a little at his apology. Maybe she would regret it in time if she killed him, perhaps straight away, this caused her to feel conflict in her heart and she started to panic.

"How do you tell the difference between passion and devotion?" she asked abruptly.

Outbursts at this point were not shocking or surprising between the two of them since they were now so relaxed in each others company, anything that would come out of their mouths now would be completely acceptable no matter how strange it was. It was like they had found tranquillity together in this short space of time, bonding with one another.

"I don't really know, I have always thought they tied into each other. I think it depends on the context but, usually passion is more emotional. And devotion … its like a duty that isn't a chore, so I guess its not a duty at all." Garen struggled to word his explanation of something he was trying to philosophize about, this definitely was not his strong point.

"I thought you'd say something stupid like that." mocked Katarina

Once again she lifted up his hand and moved it off from her stomach, and decided to get off from his bed, shuffling towards where he had hung her clothes and touched them to see if they were drenched still. The felt quite damp but they were no longer wet, it would be okay to wear them probably, she was sure to get a cold soon if she was not careful though. The red-haired woman stood on her tip-toes and pulled her clothes down.

"Get changed" she ordered while her voice was muffled from inside the vest she was wearing as she was taking it off.

Before Garen had the chance to turn away at the sight of seeing Katarina's naked back as she threw the vest right in his face, he put it aside and decided to dress into the officer uniform he had received today from the nurse once again. Once Katarina had put everything on but her boots, she walked over towards her weapons, Garen quickly noticed this and put his arm over them.

"No you can't have those now, that way I will allow you to walk around without any shackles, which will be more comfortable for you I presume." Garen commanded in a husky voice

A mischievous smile broke across Katarina's face and she took a step back and nodded agreeing to his suggestion since he was right, it would be better not to be tied up like an animal again.

"Why are we getting dressed anyway?" Garen asked.

"Oh you would rather we spent some time wearing nothing at all together Demacia?"

"N-no I was just curious what you are up to now"

"I want to go for a walk, is that okay with you big boy? You are my prison guard now, you will have to accompany me everywhere!"

"I see, that should be okay I think" thoughtfully replied Garen.

They continued to ready themselves to go outside, they both put their boots on last and Garen lifted his sword and walked over towards the entrance of his tent waiting for her, why was he waiting? It was her idea to go outside. He turned to look at Kat who was now on one side of his tent crouching down at the long blue scarf that Garen usually wore with his standard uniform, she lifted it up and pressed it on her nose for a second, she then wrapped it around her. Because Garen was so large when he wore this scarf it would usually just go down to the back of his knees, but on Katarina it looked enormous, like a cloak.

"What are you doing?" the confused owner of the scarf asked, no longer in a husky voice

"It smells like you, I don't really like that green uniform that you got going on right now so I need this to refresh my memory. And its raining outside so this will keep me warm and maybe stop me from getting wet." she explained. "I would rather not wear these colours believe me, I hate anything to do with Demacia"

"Even me?" He joked.

She chose not to answer such a childish question, the time for speaking their minds was over and she strutted around him, out of his tent and into the encampment. Garen stood there a little puzzled at the sudden change of pace in their conversations today, it was hard to keep up. The ice cold air was blowing through the entrance of his tent, Garen felt it on his exposed skin and shivered. _At least the thunder has stopped, maybe it will clear up_ he thought, and so he took a breather and walked out with his sword held firmly in his hand, just in-case.


End file.
